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August 2, 2013

day 23.

Ruthe has got all sorts of tricks up her sleeve! Or, in this case, up her chromosomes.

Ruthe's recovery - 15 minutes, one day, three days, and one week post-op.

Our little nugget was diagnosed with diGeorge Syndrome. It's a disorder caused by a deleted portion of genes from her 22nd chromosome. There's a chance that it came from me or John, or that it occurred all on it's own. There are some other problems that Ruthe might have or develop, related to diGeorge Syndrome, but for now we're just happy to know where her heart defect and cleft palate came from!

And since we're dishing out the results of all Ruthe's recent tests, she's also positive for VRE. That's vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Enterococci is a bacteria most commonly found in the intestines that's become resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin. Ruthe's not sick from it, she just has the bacteria. She most likely got it from the hospital, although it could have been me or John or any of her many visitors. I'm not trying to point a finger, I just want to emphasize the fact that she isn't sick with an infection. someone could have VRE for their entire life and never develop an infection, or experience any symptoms because of it. If she does develop an infection from it though, it can be treated with different antibiotics.

Because she's VRE-positive, Ruthe was moved yet again. This time just to a new spot in the NICU. The NICU at Sunrice is divided into six[ish?] pods, and each of those pods has several wings, each housing three or four little nooks for babies. The wing that Ruthe was in when they got her test result back also housed a baby that could get seriously ill if they were exposed to VRE and developed an infection from it. Since Ruthe's such a trooper [and has way less machines to transfer along with her] we scooted her little bed into another wing at the end of the pod. We still have to wear all the isolation gear whenever we go to see her, and we'll have to until she comes home, but being at the very end of the pod is great! Ruthe's little nook is extra spacious, so we swiped a second rocking chair to keep in there for our night-time visits. :)